Something is missing in Omaha’s new juvenile detention center: the juveniles. A year after the controversial project’s completion, the $27 million, 64-bed center remains empty, because it’s not big enough, reports the Associated Press in a story originally published by Flatwater Free Press. And though detained children remain in the 27-year-old Douglas County Youth Center, which critics say is more like an adult jail, the new juvenile center it may never be used for its original purpose. As the number of kids in custody continues to exceed the number of beds in the new facility, members of the Douglas County Board have begun floating potential alternative uses for the four-story building. “The money has been spent. No child nor family has been helped,” said Bellevue activist Nicole Le Clerc. “In this trying time, to have built that building, it’s unfathomable what they’ve done.”
Proponents of the project say that, by beefing up social-service programs, an investment that just recently happened, they felt kids could move through the system faster, freeing up beds. Supporters were also optimistic when the average population at DCYC trended downward for a couple years. That trend reversed in 2022, as the nation emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic at a time when early-intervention youth programs were still shut down or short-staffed. During this year’s first six months, the old building housed a daily average of 89 kids — the highest figure since 2012. Now, one option is to keep those charged as adults at the old building while moving the others. These tough decisions are part of a national trend where youth detention facilities are overwhelmed by a rise in violent and gun-related crime, said Mike Dempsey, director of the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators.